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Arkwright - The Independent Voice
Not a lot to smile about this month: bad weather, credit crunch, my cat died and to add to my misery a seagull scored a direct hit on me coming to work today, what a mess that made but at least it amused a couple of passing schoolboys who went off laughing hysterically at my misfortune. Being hit by bird's muck is meant to be lucky so I'm hoping things will look up, although I'll be very careful if I do in case it happens again.
When I wasn't prepared to sell my soul to the devil, disguised as Nike, and meet their demands for thousands of pounds worth of orders I accepted that my account would close. I imagined that was the end of our relationship; frankly I wasn't sorry because I'd never liked their attitude. So why now, a couple of years on, have I suddenly started receiving emails from them inviting me to order goods? Presumably others who had been excommunicated so sensitively are hearing from them too. Are we all meant to kiss and make up and be grateful Nike didn't totally erase our email addresses from their records? No, press the delete button is my advice. I wasn't good enough for them then, they are not good enough for me now. Since my account closed (or went into rest mode as would now seem to be the case) when anyone has asked for a Nike product in the shop I've taken great delight in telling them how Nike don't like small accounts and that along with Tesco they want to clone the world while sourcing their goods at the expense of exploited Far Eastern workers (or farmers, at home and abroad, in the case of Tesco). Pricking people's ethical conscience seems to be the 'in thing' at the moment and protesting at the Olympic torch's progress as it ducks and weaves its way across the world to Beijing is fine - but will it change anything? I very much doubt it. While those outside China have a thirst for their cheaply produced exports the Chinese government won't care less what the rest of the world thinks. Driven by the desire to keep costs down manufacturing left these shores some years ago, going first to the then-poorer European countries, on to north Africa, out to the Far East and now to China. Where else is there left to go if China should put their human rights record straight, put health and safety in every factory and consequently put their prices up? Full circle perhaps. Back here in the UK with the clampdown on credit cards and mortgages people could be forced back to the workhouse and the phoenix might even rise again!
So where's the grass greener? 12,000 miles away Down Under if three of our friends and their families are to be believed. In the last four weeks they've all announced they're off. It must have been all their talk of travel and a new life that caused my disturbed night's sleep last week; the realness of the dream has haunted me since. When I woke up I was amazed to find myself in a familiar bed rather than on a convict ship bound for Australia! In the dream I'd been in court with a judge saying, "So you admit to some times being late for work in the mornings? You admit to flouting health & safety regulations when you stepped on the first rung of the ladder? You admit to taking £50 out of the till for a boozy lunch and then having no receipt for it, the fact MPs do that doesn't mean you can". I kept stammering that I was self-employed and that it was my own business and that if I wanted to steal from my own till I thought I should be allowed to. The judge was adamant, "You should treat yourself as you would your employees. You should have given yourself a verbal warning for being late, a written warning for moving the ladder without proper supervision and a dismissal letter for stealing. This country may be going downhill but you're going Down Under on the next deportation boat. Get out of my sight". Well at least with that mode of transport I'd miss the misery of BA and their new Terminal 5.
Since brewing my coffee and getting my jottings for the month down on paper the sun has come out and we are enjoying a pretty good day's trading. Perhaps the seagull did bring a change of luck. I'll stand in the way of it again tomorrow if that's all it takes - the business plan and sales strategy can go in the bin.
